The Nxt Wiki
Welcome to the The Nxt Wiki Welcome to the Nxt coin wiki. This wiki is maintained by the Nxt coin community http://nxtcoin-cz.wikia.com/wiki/Nxtcoin_%C4%8Desky_Wiki Czech version What is Nxt? Nxt is considered a second-generation crypto currency. With all the altcoins coming out that only change things such as hashing mechanism, time between blocks, starting difficulty, and so on, Nxt brings much much more to the table and was designed this way for a number of reasons: #It is not an "alt coin" like coins such as litecoin, peercoin, and others who have their code based on Bitcoin's source code. It is brand new from scratch with its own code. #It provides built in support for planned extra features such as a decentralized peer-peer exchange, colored coins, messaging/chat, decentralized DNS, and options for instant transactions. #It is a 100% proof of stake (PoS) versus the proof of work (PoW) mechanism the vast majority of other coins are based on. This effectively removes a large security risk inherent in most other coins, as the issue of a 51% attack or other vulnerabilities inherent to PoW coins is gone. The biggest plus here is how "green" this protocol is in terms of power consumption, since PoS doesn’t require massive amounts of hashing power #It was announced weeks in advance, unlike mere hours like most coins. The 71 stakeholders are responsible for distributing the 1 billion Nxt coins that were ejected from the genesis block via an injection of bitcoin (donated by them, 21 BTC total) into the genesis block. This is a requirement for this PoS system to work and this distribution is now in progress. Nxt is listed on http://coinmarketcap.com/ and people are trading on a 1-on-1 basis in the forums as well as on a temporary (centralized) exchange http://www.dgex.com. 'Current features' *A true descendant of Bitcoin **Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Nxt was written from scratch and is based on all-new code. Nxt improves upon many of the features of Bitcoin, removes some disadvantages (e.g. bloated blockchain) and resolves a big environmental issue. Time between blocks is one minute. This increases the rate of orphaned blocks but makes it more convenient for the users. *Limited supply **1 billion Nxt coins were generated in the first block, and no new Nxt coins will be created. Coins are not "mined" like they are with other currencies. *100% Proof-of-Stake currency **Nxt is the first 100% Proof-of-Stake (PoS) currency. Coins are earned solely by charging transaction fees. Unlike other currencies with Proof-of-Stake mining, however, Nxt's PoS mining does not cause monetary inflation. *Transparent mining **Nxt will implement a novel "transparent mining" system that will temporarily penalize accounts that do not participate in the proof-of-stake block verification process. This will encourage holders of non-trivial amounts of Nxt to actively participate in the network, instead of merely holding a balance in order to collect transmission fees. More information about this feature can be found in this Bitcointalk thread . *Brain wallet **All Nxt account information is stored on the network. Using a secret passphrase, an account can be accessed from any instance of the Nxt software. *Fast transaction processing **Nxt does not use "scripts" (or predicates), which simplifies and accelerates transaction processing. Advanced features (such as multisig) will be created on top of the Nxt core as third-party services. **Blocks are generated once per minute. 'Upcoming features' Planned features of Nxt include: *Currency Exchange **To exchange cryptocoins right now, you have to sign up for an account on a centralized platform such as Cryptsy/BTC-E/Bter/etc, transfer coins to them and then pay them for transactions. This brings in a large concern: it’s possible that the exchange could just bail with everyone's deposits. This recently happened when the Sheep Marketplace did just that with 96,000 bitcoins. The developers of NxT (BCNxt and his crew) are developing a peer-peer exchange into the software to allow for decentralized trading which will eliminate this trust point. It will also eliminate trading fees! Obviously this is all still completely secure and anonymous as are current bitcoin transactions. * Colored coins **Understanding the concept of colored coins requires a fairly deep view into the mechanics of bitcoin transactions. With bitcoin, each transaction's output hashed address is based on a previous receiving address that originally received that coin. So with the blockchain, a set of bitcoin transactions can be traced: an individual coin or pieces of that coin can be traced back on a transaction by transaction basis. Since this is the case, if it were possible to expand the protocol to allow a person to designate or "color" a particular coin, then we could build a bridge from the virtual crypto-currency world to the physical world. In effect that coin could then be used to represent some physical entity here on earth. Property, stocks/bonds, commodites, or really any concept that can be concretely identified could be used. *Stock Exchange *Marketplace *Messaging *Voting Nxt Basics 'How do I get started with Nxt?' You can start your Nxt adventure by downloading and installing the Nxt software. Nxt is written in Java, and requires an up-to-date Java installation in order to be run. Up-to-date instructions can be found here: *Windows installation *MacOS installation *Linux (Ubuntu) installation There is also a YouTube video tutorial for installation under Windows , created by pinarello 'How do I create a Nxt account number?' In order to send or receive Nxt, you need to create an account number. You can create an account within the Nxt client software. Your account number will be your address. Pick a very strong random passphrase that is greater than 30 characters. You will need to install the Nxt client software on your machine and run a local node (which will assist the network). Below are links for install instructions on Windows and MacOS: #Install and run the Nxt client software on your computer #*Windows installation instructions #*MacOS installation instructions Creating an account #Within the Nxt client software, click on the orange picture of a padlock. It will be located in the''' UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER of your browser window. #*A pop-up window labeled ACCOUNT will appear. #In the text field that appears, enter a secret passphrase. #*VERY IMPORTANT:' #**Record your passphrase, and keep it in a secure location. It will be used to generate your account number #**Once you create and enter this passphrase, it can never be changed #**If you ever lose your passphrase, you will lose access to your account #**Your passphrase is more secure if it is long and complex. Use a string that is at least 30 characters long. If possible, do not base your passphrase on any complete words in any language. #**Do not share your passphrase with anyone. #Click '''Unlock account.' #*'T'''he orange padlock will change from a "locked" position to an "unlocked" position #*Your newly-generated account number will appear in green text to the right of the padlock icon #Record your account number! 'How do I send Nxt coin? #Access your local client (https://localhost:7875/) #Unlock your account #*Click on the orange picture of a padlock in the ''' TOP LEFT CORNER. A popup labeled ACCOUNT will appear. #*Enter your secret passphrase, and then click on the Unlock account '''button #Send Nxt by clicking on the violet arrow on the '''TOP RIGHT CORNER '''of the browser window. #*A popup labeled '''TRANSACTION appears. Complete the fields as follows: #**''Recipient'' : enter the Nxt account number of the receiver. #**''Amount'' : choose the amount of Nxt coin you would like to send #**''Fee'' : Set a number of coins to use for the transaction fee. The software will suggest a fee of 1 coin for every 1000 coins sent (which equates to 0.1%), but you can set the fee to as low as 1 coin for any transaction amount. #**''Deadline'' : enter a small number (1 hour is fine; the default is 24 hours) #Click the Send Money Button #*The message Money is sent will appear The Nxt client interface General notes on working with the interface The client window is organized into two main areas: *a menu bar *a display area Hovering over most areas in the interface will give you a small "tooltip" pop-up that describes it. Additionally, each panel in the display area has some common functions: 'The menu bar' The black bar at the top of the Nxt client interface is essentially a menu bar, with the following items available: The "transactions" block This area displays transaction information. When your account is unlocked, "My transactions" will display all of the transactions for your account. The "Unconfirmed transactions" area displays information about all unconfirmed transactions on the network, including transactions that are not yours. The "Double-spending transactions" area is still under development. 'My transactions' The "peers" block This area displays information about other nodes on the network that are processing transactions. The "Active peers" area displays nodes that are currently active. The "Known peers" area displays nodes that your client is aware of, but that are not currently active. The "Blacklisted peers" area lists nodes that were recently online but have become unavailable (the term "blacklisted" may eventually be changed, as it is a little misleading). The following icons and fields may be shown in this area: The "blocks" block This area displays information about the blockchain. The blockchain represents the full history of transactions on the Nxt network, and each block in the chain can contain up to 255 transactions. Nodes on the Nxt network compete to create these blocks through a process called "forging" (known in other crypto-currencies as "mining"), and once a block has been added to the blockchain it helps document and reinforce every transaction on the network. Blocks are forged once per minute. The "recent blocks" area shows the most recently-forged blocks, with the newest ones at the top. The "orphaned blocks" area lists blocks that were forged by nodes on the network but were not accepted as part of the official blockchain. The following icons and fields may be shown in this area: The "accounts" block Features for this block have not yet been implemented. FAQ 'How does mining work?' The term "mining" does not really apply to Nxt, since all coins currently exist and no new ones will be created. Contributors to the Nxt community prefer the term "refining" or "forging" for earning Nxt on its Proof-of-Stake system. With Nxt, coins can be earned through transaction fees. 24 hours after receiving your first coins, your Nxt software will begin to contribute to the block generation process and can earn coins for you as long as your account is "unlocked". The amount of coin you can earn is dependent upon the number of coins you hold, the total number of coins "active" on the network, and the transaction fees included in blocks on the blockchain. 'Do I have to leave the client open in order to mine coins?' No. You have to leave your account "unlocked" in order for your address to be active, but you do not have to leave your browser window open. 'Where is my wallet?' Unlike Bitcoin or other altcoins, there is no wallet with Nxt. More specifically, the coin uses a "brain wallet", which is to say that wallets are decentralized and kept on the network. When you create an account in Nxt, your secret passphrase is used to create your account number. Once your account number is generated, you can unlock it and access it by using your passphrase on any running Nxt node. 'When will I earn Nxt, and how much will I earn?' You can start processing transactions and earning Nxt after the first amount in your account is confirmed 1440 times (or 24 hours). Once 24 hours has passed, an estimate of the time before your software will forge a block will be shown at the top of the "Blocks" widget. Here is a mathematical walkthrough of how Nxt coins can be earned from transactions: * Every 24 hours, there should be 1440 blocks added to the chain. These blocks represent transactions for the total volume of coins (1 billion) * If all of these coins were used for active mining, then an account balance of 694,444 NXT (1 billion divided by 1440) would mine 1 block per day. However: ** coins moved to a brand new account must wait for 1440 blocks to mature ** some owners don't bother with mining, don't leave their Nxt software running, or their Nxt software crashes, so only portion of all coins are actively mining at any point in time. * If you look at the "recent blocks widget" in the Nx software you will see a red-white target icon in each block. If you divide 100% by the target value you'll get the portion of coins that was used for mining that block. (Note: Because blocks are generated once per minute, you should take an average value of these targets, since they fluctuate from minute to minute) ** For example, if the average target value is is 400%, then only 100/400 = 25% of coins are mining blocks. * Now you can calculate an approximate value of how many blocks you might create per day by multiplying the number of coins you own by the absolute value of the target (e.g. the absolute value of 400% = 4), and then divide by 694,444. ** For example, if you have 50,000 Nxt coins and the average value is 400%, you could forge 0.288 Nxt blocks per day, which translates to one block every 3 or 4 days. * The number of coins you earn from finishing a block depends on the number of "fee coins" in the block. The minimum fee per trade is 1 coin, and the number of trades in a block will vary. It is possible for blocks to be empty. 'Why are all Nxt coins pre-mined?' The term "pre-mined" is really a misnomer. Nxt coins are not mined at all. The original stakeholders in Nxt contributed Bitcoin in order to seed the creation of the 1 billion coins represented in the genesis block, and these coins were distributed among the original stakeholders. Even the creator of Nxt (BCNxt ) made an investment. The coins were not generated from nothing! The creation of the genesis block was fully public: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=303898.msg3652710#msg3652710 'If there are no new Nxt to be mined, how do you validate the blockchain and secure the network?' Nxt is a pure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) currency. Users validate the blockchain and secure the network by running a light weight client on any computing device (even one that used to run Windows XP). For doing this users are rewarded with Nxt coin that is collected from transaction fees. In addition, the "transparent mining" feature of Nxt will penalize accounts that do not participate in the mining process by temporarily preventing them from earning transaction fees. 'How do I get my first Nxt coin?' There are a number of ways for you to get your first Nxt coin! *Ask for donations! As these are early days for Nxt, stakeholders are more than happy to donate small amounts of coin to help seed interest. Try posting your account information on this forum topic . *Contribute to the community! A great deal of work needs to be done to help the Nxt community grow -- everything from contributing documentation, to promoting Nxt, to assisting with translations, to contributing code, and more. Take a look at this list of Nxt forum bounties or this list of Bitcointalk.org bounties to see what "tasks" need to be performed. Take one on, and earn some coin for your work. *Purchase some Nxt coin on DGEX.com , using Bitcoin. *Pick up some coin by trading directly with members of the community in the Nxt Buying / Selling Thread. If you buy coins from someone directly, make sure you trust them, and try to break the amount in smaller groups! (Example: Trade 200 000 NXT for 1 BTC by breaking it down to 20 000 NXT/0.1 BTC packages) 'Why do I have to buy Nxt coins in order to "mine" them?' If you´d like to own some BTC, or any of the other altcoins, you have to invest in mining hardware to be able to mine some coins. With NXT, you buy an actual amount of coins in order to start to start "mining". There are no additional costs, and no mining hardware needed. 'Where can I buy Nxt coin?' You can exchange Bitcoin for Nxt at DGEX.com . Eventually the Nxt software will implement its own decentralized exchange. 'Can I access my wallet from another computer?' Yes! There is no wallet file in Nxt because all of the accounts are stored on the network. This is referred to as a "brain wallet". This means your account can be accessed from anywhere, but it really emphasizes the importance of using a strong passphrase, since the passsphrase is the only thing that protects your coins from being accessed by others. (The authorization might be rewritten / updated later) 'I have some coins in my account. How can I start processing transactions?' You can start processing transactions once the first amount in your account is confirmed 1440 times. This usually takes a day (blocks are generated once per minute, so 1440 blocks are generated every 24 hours). The user interface will show you a "timer" in the "blocks" widget when your software has started processing blocks. The longer your account has gone without generating a block, the higher the chance will be that you will generate one. 'I'm worried about account security. Since all of the accounts are stored on the network, isn't it possible for someone to guess my "secret phrase" and get easy access to my coins?' This question actually emphasizes the importance using a strong, secure password to create your Nxt account. In fact, we prefer the term "passphrase" because a "phrase" is generally much longer than a "word". If you enter a passphrase less than 30 characters long in the Nxt client, you will be warned that you are creating a security risk. A truly random string of 50 to 60 characters is a far better choice for a passphrase, and will significantly reduce the risk of someone "brute-forcing" your account or stumbling across it or happening to use exactly the same passphrase. Nxt supports 10^77 different account numbers (that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 accounts), so the range of possible passphrases is significant. You can use a site like https://howsecureismypassword.net/ to test the strength of your passphrase, and get an estimate of how long it would take a standard computer to crack it. 'I've just realized I should have chosen a better password/passphrase. Can I change it?' You cannot change your account passphrase in Nxt, because it is actually used to generate your account number. More accurately, for those of you who know a bit about public-key cryptography: your passphrase is the private key for your account, and your account number is your public key. If you would like to use a different passphrase, just create a new Nxt account using whatever passphrase you'd like. Once you've done that, use your Nxt client to send your Nxt coins to yourself – from your old account number to your new one. The transaction fee can be set to 1 coin, so it won't cost you much to make the change. 'Why isn't Nxt open-source?' Eventually, it will be. At the moment, some of the code is still private because it is still being hammered out. The development community is releasing all of the base source code on January 3, 2014 . Moreover, the developers have purposefully introduced three security flaws into the source code that they will be releasing, as a means of encouraging the community to scrutinize the code and to prevent people from creating copies of Nxt by simply taking the source code and using it. People who discover the security holes will be able to claim Nxt coin rewards for finding them. Common problems and resolutions 'When I try to start the software, I get a Java error.' Nxt relies on Java v1.7 and the latest version of the Java Developer's Kit. Make sure you download and install latest version installed from Oracle! You can check to see which version of Java is running on your computer by running the following command in a terminal window: java -version 'I cannot load the client in a web browser' Nxt uses a couple of different ports, but each port uses a different protocol. To access your client with an unencrypted connection, use this address: http://localhost:7874/ To access your client with an encrypted connection, use this address: https://localhost:7875/ For port 7874, you MUST use http. For port 7875, you MUST use https. If neither of these addresses work, you can also try these addresses: http://127.0.0.1:7874/ https://127.0.0.1:7875/ 'My blockchain won't load!' Your data files may have been corrupted. Try the following steps: *Stop your Java software. *Navigate to your "nxt" folder and delete all the files ending in ".nxt" (NOT ".nxt.bak"!) *Restart your Nxt software, wait a few minutes, and then check the Nxt client to see if the blockchain has begun to load. If not: **Stop your Java software again. **Download new blockchain files manually from this location . Unzip the files and use them to replace the ones in your "nxt" folder. **Restart your Nxt software, wait a few minutes, and then check the Nxt client to see if the blockchain has begun to load. If not: ***Stop your Java software ***Delete your "nxt" folder ***Re-download and re-install the Nxt software 'The client says I have 0 NXT in my account but I have not transferred my coins anywhere' This could happen for two reasons: * The blockchain has not been completely downloaded in your software yet, and the blocks containing your deposits are yet to be downloaded. Check the time stamp on the latest block in the "Blocks" panel. If it is not very recent (within a minute or two), wait and give the software some time to catch up. If you are impatient, you can download an almost-complete blockchain from this location -- just unzip them into your "nxt" folder. * There appears to be a bug in the client software right now that causes balances to be improperly shown. Try stopping and restarting your Java software, and then unlock your account again. Important links *Nxt information **Bicointalk.org thread on Nxt **Nxt blockchain explorer **Nxt Buying/Selling thread **Nxt bounty thread **Nxt giveaway thread **Nxt API thread *Nxt services **DGEX.com exchange (and the thread for discussing it ) **Nxt slot machine *Translations **Russian thread Latest activity How do we need to make a backup from our account ? Category:Browse